U.S. Schools Reopening Despite Omicron Threat

A vast majority of US public schools appeared to be operating as planned this week, but the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant, along with labor and testing shortages, has led to a growing number of disruptions, Whet Moser reported for the New York Times.

Photo Insert: Mission High School, San Francisco, California

Districts in Detroit, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Newark were among those announcing that their schools would switch to remote learning for periods lasting from a few days to several weeks.

Separately, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized boosters of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds. Regulators also shortened by a month the amount of time that adults and adolescents should wait between second and third doses and allowed some immunocompromised children ages 5 to 11 to seek a third shot.

For many adults, return-to-office plans have been delayed yet again as companies including Goldman Sachs and Chevron began to backtrack. But for all the disruptions caused by Omicron, new data offer hope about the severity of the variant.

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